The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) favors bulk procurement in ensuring lower prices of medicines instead of price control.
A radio interview quoted Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez as saying putting price controls on pharmaceutical products may just lead to vital medicines being pulled out of the market.
“Price controls are not usually encouraged… It may distort the market,” Lopez said in the interview.
He said drug manufacturers could simply bring their products to other markets if restraints were place on their prices.
“If it doesn’t make sense for them, if the market is not profitable, they can just choose not to enter that market. They may be better off selling their medicines to other countries,” said Lopez.
Lopez said prices of medicines in other countries were lower than in the Philippines because of government subsidies.
But he said the Philippines cannot afford to offer such subsidies, as it is estimated the government would need over P4 trillion to keep up with the subsidies offered by other nations.
Lopez said volume procurement is the more viable alternative for the Philippines to make prices of medicines more affordable.
He proposed a state-run entity could purchase medicines, especially pricey ones used to treat diseases like cancer, by volume so that it could get as low a price as possible.
He said this body could collate the requirements of hospitals and drug stores and purchase on their behalf in bulk.
“The beauty of this system is the government will know exactly how much the medicines would cost, and can then guide the retail price,” he said.
“That’s what we mean by managed, maximum retail price,” said Lopez.
